Last week I wrote about the statutory framework of the family status accommodation requirements in Ontario. The case that has moved this area of law along is Misetich v Value Village Stores (2016 HRTO 1229, “Misetich”), a case the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
Discrimination on the grounds of “family status” continues to be a hot topic for Canadian employers. Are employers required to accommodate an employee’s eldercare obligations? Are these sorts of obligations different than an employee’s childcare obligations? Where is the line between personal preference to help
As of the date of this posting, there are only 38 more sleeps until December 25 (according to my kids’ countdown app). This means only 5 more weekends (6 if you count December 24 as a perfectly noble shopping day) and likely several parties before the end of the year. Cue the annual articles on
The minimum wage that every Ontario employer must pay their employees has gone up from $11.25 to $11.40 per hour, effective October 1, 2016. The Ontario Employment Standards Act sets out further details for specific categories of employees, such as students, liquor servers, hunting and fishing guides, and homeworkers.
For those workplaces that employ
Toronto is a great place to be a tech employer. It’s a cool city with exciting innovation and talent. If you’re a US company considering getting in on the action in Toronto, there are few things you should know about the True North.
Canada strives to
Because of the recent controversy surrounding unpaid interns, we have been getting many calls from concerned employers about their obligation when working with interns and employers’ rights when interns do not work out.
Pay
As a general rule, unpaid internships are not permitted in Ontario. There are a few exceptions, the most common of which
A blog post just in time for some downtime over the holiday – when can personal tweets become grounds for termination? Some of you may remember when in August of 2013 Canadian news outlets were a-buzz with the termination of two Toronto Firefighters for sexist comments made on Twitter. For a media report on the details of the tweets and reactions, click here.
While the tweets were made off-duty, and not in reference to anything work related, management got involved partly because the Firefighters in question identified themselves as such on their Twitter profiles. The conduct was deemed to be in violation of employer policies, including their Social Media Policy, damaging to the reputation of Toronto Fire and ultimately worthy of termination.
Both individuals grieved their terminations, asking for their jobs back. These two cases are a good example of when tweets can amount to grounds for termination and when reinstatement may be ordered.
Continue Reading Tweeting Your Way to Termination
We all have an office party horror story. The partner who got too sloppy and friendly with the summer student, the awkward aversion of eye contact the next day, or the overly honest comments from the disgruntled employee.
While holiday parties can be an important employee morale booster, for the employer they can present a minefield of potential liability and complaints. For start-ups and entrepreneurs, the informal culture can particularly be an invitation to indulge and live it up in the name of hipster, relaxed office counter-culture.
Employer host liability, however, applies to all workplaces. Even if it’s a Saturday night and you’re at a fancy bar, the employee’s right to harassment free work environment extends to off-site employer sponsored events. If your company’s New Year’s resolutions have something to do with avoiding human rights complaints, harassment allegations or claims for social host negligence here are our top tips to get you started on the right path.
Continue Reading Holiday Party Tips for the Young Boss
Blue Jays-itis, Blue Jay Fever, the Blue Flu…whatever you call it some sort of strange illness has taken over Canadian workplaces with employees calling in sick, skipping out early or hunched secretively over their computers all in the name of baseball.
I have discussed the issue of sports and impacts on workplace productivity before. With all the excitement, and games taking place during work hours, it seems timely to re-visit the topic.Continue Reading Alert! Blue-Flu Hits Canada
Employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the personal information on their workplace computers, even if that expectation can be significantly diminished with effective workplace policies and practices. However, whether such reasonable expectations extend to workplace computer evidence admitted in a criminal proceeding was addressed in last Friday’s highly anticipated Supreme Court of Canada